The Poet Guy

Connecting with people is a peculiar thing, especially for poets. You never know what is going to catch the attention of a reader or a listener in a meaningful enough way to attach itself to the memory-keeping part of their brains – and I’ve proven this with every submission I’ve ever made to a literary journal: The poem I’m sure they will love is never the one they select for publication, it’s always the one I threw in to round out the packet.  (Oh, and to any of my editors who happen to be reading this: Thanks for keeping me thinking!)

A few weeks ago, I got to spend an afternoon with the students and teachers of Pioneer Academy of Science in Clifton NJ. It’s a remarkable place, much more than you’d expect of a grammar school. I was there to introduce them to poetry. And though I had tapped some of the best poets and educators I know for backup (chiefly: coaching from BJ Ward and articles from Diane Lockward and Elizabeth Lund), I had no idea what to expect.

I have to say the students responded marvelously to the poems I read for them and to the exercises I asked them to do. There was the usual disagreement over whether rhyme is essential to poetry (which, fortunately, I’d been counseled not to try to win), and the students produced some fine short works in each of the 5 minute writing periods I gave them. The younger kids (grades 3-5) just burst with energy at the end of our class, and the older ones (grades 6-8) asked more than a few thoughtful questions of me during, and after, our time together. I really felt I’d accomplished something, given the students something they’d be able to unconsciously access when their teachers gave them their real “Introduction to Poetry”.

Flash forward now to, of all places, the lobby of a local catering hall where my bowling league was celebrating the end of the season. I was passing down a narrow corridor when a small person stopped in front of me and said “Hi!”. I must have looked as confused as I felt, because she quickly continued “You’re the poet guy! You came to our school!”

Wow. I had hoped that the students I had done these short workshops with would remember some of what I’d shown them of poetry’s music, it’s ability to convey wonder and imagination. It had never occurred to me that they might actually remember me. I’m a little scared now, trying to recall everything I said, wondering what else these talented and impressionable young people might be recalling. I’ve convinced myself there can’t be anything too geeky or bad, though, or the merciless friend filtering that ten-year-olds do would have driven my friend in the hall to avoid me, rather than to greet me.

Poet Guy. A most excellent title. I can’t think of exactly what I’ve done to deserve it.

But I’m not giving it back.


David Vincenti
Advisor, Center for the Performing Arts at DeBaun Auditorium
www.debaun.org; www.davidvincenti.com